There are three possible reasons to see Baton Rouge: Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, and Carmen Maura. If you’re not fond of the work of at least one member of that triumvirate of popular Spanish actors, you probably will have a hard time sitting through this clumsy Spanish film noir. And…
You can’t really blame the distributors of A Good Man in Africa for emphasizing the presence of Sean Connery in the film’s cast. After all he’s perfect for the role of high-principled Dr. Alex Murray, the only white man in the emerging West African nation of Kinjanja who cannot be…
In Bernard Slade’s mediocre Romantic Comedy — given a painfully slow rendition by the Hollywood Performing Arts Professional Repertory Theatre — Phoebe, one half of a playwriting duo, desperately tries to convince her partner, Jason, to continue working on the second act of their latest collaboration. “People still respond to…
Be afraid. Be very afraid. Oliver Stone has gone over the edge and he wants to take you with him. Stone’s new film Natural Born Killers is a splatterfest with a heart as black as gunpowder. Think Bonnie and Clyde with assault weapons. Remember that scene in Brian De Palma’s…
While the actors all turn in fine performances in director Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman the real star of the film is the food. Not since Babette’s Feast and Like Water for Chocolate has a motion picture given such mouthwatering due to meals. The film opens with widower Tao…
The ability to select and produce a satisfying entertainment largely depends on knowing when a specific form is past its prime and when it’s gaining popularity. By presenting Sandra Deer’s dull and meandering So Long on Lonely Street the New River Repertory seems ignorant of the fact that knockoff southern…
Although I’ve always been a vocal opponent of censorship in almost any form, after viewing the racy Color of Night I’ve had a change of heart. The time has come for Hollywood to start policing itself. I’m not talking about explicit sexual content A no, if anything I’d like to…
Last summer’s Cliffhanger elicited gasps from audiences as macho action-movie hero Sylvester Stallone scaled up and rappelled down sheer mountain walls. Stallone’s biceps bulged, his deltoids popped, and his face contorted like a world-class athlete’s from the strain. Stories appeared in the press portraying Stallone as fearless as a Wallenda…
In New Theatre’s nearly flawless production of Terrence McNally’s recent off-Broadway hit, A Perfect Ganesh, actor extraordinaire Bill Yule portrays Lord Ganesha, Hindu God of Happiness, both hideous (with his elephant’s head) and splendid (with his good humor). “I am in your kiss and in your cancer,” he says. “I…
It’s “the last decade of the Cold War” (as the opening titles inform us) in post-Franco Spain. Anti-U.S. sentiment is sky-high. Fred, the gung-ho advance man for the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet, has just arrived in Barcelona, showing up unannounced at the apartment of his less-than-thrilled cousin Ted, a sales…
Whether they were written by one person or many, by lord or commoner, there remains one undeniable truth about the plays attributed to William Shakespeare: They attain the highest possible goals of playwriting. No other author has produced a body of work so consistently excellent, so relevant, so poignant, so…
I wondered where Tom Clancy, the inexplicably popular flag-waving hack author of The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games, was going to turn for source material now that the Cold War has ended. As Gomer Pyle, a U.S. Marine with an understanding of the complexities of international politics about…
The Lone Rangers, a struggling L.A. rock and roll power trio, can’t even come up with a name that makes sense; as several characters in the film Airheads point out, you can’t be a lone ranger if there’s more than one of you. But, like most unsigned bands, they believe…
Regular readers of this column may have noticed I’ve been writing more about ideas and trends lately than reviewing specific plays. There’s a simple reason for this. Unlike the past two South Florida “off-season” seasons (which were packed with new and unusual work), this year’s torrid temperatures seem to have…
I’m guessing I’m not the only Floridian who’s ever played the “What would I do if I won Lotto?” game. You know the drill: It’s Saturday night. 10:55 p.m. In two minutes the six numbered Ping-Pong balls that will change your life forever will be drawn. You sit in front…
Trivia question: What do eight of the twelve top-grossing films of all time have in common? Answer: Special effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the production studio founded by George Lucas in 1975. In less than two decades ILM has garnered thirteen Academy Awards for its handiwork. E.T.: The…
When a theater production is truly disappointing, it usually falls into one of two categories: either the show is so tedious you can’t help nodding off at regular intervals, or it’s like a traffic accident, compelling you to stare at it with gruesome fascination while calculating the extent of the…
Here is what I look for in a thriller: a plot that turns on logic, not one that defies it. Characters whose behavior arises from believable motivations and whose actions do not feel arbitrary. Good guys who are not invulnerable, and bad guys who shoot accurately. An opening that grabs…
Good morning, class. Today we’ll be studying the laws of probability. Let’s begin our lesson with a word problem that will help you understand the basic concept. Pretend we’re making a movie. We want to calculate the likelihood that our movie will be a dog. Here’s our picture’s premise: A…
Anyone considering playwriting as a hobby or profession should tread with extra care these days. In addition to knowing how to build a story through constant dramatic action, witty dialogue, and realistic but creative characterizations, the potential author must put his or her finger to the wind and discover which…
In Poland they have a saying that has become particularly popular in the wake of communism’s fall: “Everyone wants to be more equal than everyone else.” White is the second installment in masterful Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s film trilogy based on the trinity of precepts that guided the French Revolution…
When a person won’t do something, the easiest excuse to make is that the particular thing in question can’t be done. A masterpiece can’t be painted on the ceiling of a church. A boy can’t play piano brilliantly at the age of four. No one person could have written all…
